ANNOUNCEMENT: Happy Holidays to Everyone! I have been away for a while working on a servant leadership book as the series editor for a volume on servant leadership from the follower perspective. Look for our book on Servant Leadership with 12 fabulous authors/contributors later in 2017! As we close 2016, please know that I am grateful for each of you that follow along and journey together as Servant Leaders. Be Blessed! See you in 2017…
“Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes when networks of relationships form among people who share a common cause and vision of what’s possible. This is good news for those of us intent on creating a positive future. Rather than worry about critical mass, our work is to foster critical connections. We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits. Through these relationships, we will develop the new knowledge, practices, courage and commitment that lead to broad-based change.” ~Margaret Wheatley
The Servant-Leader: From Hero to Host by Margaret J. Wheatley represents the last chapter, chapter twelve of the book we are using as a guide, Practicing Servant-Leadership: Succeeding Through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness by Larry C. Spears and Michelle Lawrence.
Margaret Wheatley, author of the book, Leadership, and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World sums up the servant leadership experience in her interview with Larry Spears and John Noble of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership in the last chapter of the book. I believe her words and hope sustains and drives the Servant leadership movement forward. We will use her book for our blog series in 2017. Here are her closing remarks.
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” That phrase comes from a wonderful gospel song. This is the time for which we have been preparing, and so there is a deep sense of call. Servant-leadership is not just an interesting idea but something fundamental and vital for the world, something the world truly does need. The concept of servant-leadership must move from an interesting idea in the public imagination toward the realization that this is the only way we can go forward. I personally experience that sense of right-timelessness to this body of work called servant-leadership. I feel that for more and more of us we need to realize that it will take even more courage to move forward, but that the necessity of moving forward is clear. It moves from being a body of work to being a movement – literally a movement – how we are going to move in this world. I think that will require more acts of courage, more clarity, more saying this has to change now. I am hoping that it will change now.”
Servant Leaders understand that leadership is a journey and that Servant leadership is a movement whose time has come. We are here to live, learn, and lead with a heart of service. I wish you the very best for your Servant Leadership journey in 2017!
To the Movement,
Dr. Crystal
